While I admire your goals, I regret I do not admire the way you are trying to achieve them.

We would all be in much stronger a position if the founders of "Bright" put their considerable energy into long-standing atheist or skeptic (sic) organisations in the USA and if the British DoGonists supported the BHA or NSS instead of starting a new, totally redundant movement. Even better, what if the BHA and NSS merged? How much stronger would British atheism be!

(comments from http://www.godwouldbeanatheist.com/blog.htm)

Martin Foreman www.godwouldbeanatheist.com

A major difference between the religious and us non-believers is that we can belong to and support more than one group; there aren't any Christian-Muslim-Buddhists, as far as I know. I do support the Brights, the NSS and the BHA (paid up member). These groups operate under limited resources and have their own areas of interest and focus, though there is overlap no doubt. So DoGonism is not in competition with these groups, but addresses issues which they do not.



Those existing groups seem to concentrate mainly on countering the encroachment of religion and faith into the lives of us all, which is admirable and necessary. The interest of this site, on the other hand, is to look at the reasons why people stay in religions and demonstrating how those needs can be provided in a non-religious context. That is, instead of just arguing about religion, on their terms, create a replacement.



Although the groups above do make some noises in the right direction I think we should be going a lot further than they do, or are able to. So I don't think the presence of multiple groups makes our case weaker as you suggest, due to the different emphases. However, I would like to see the groups at least work together (a "Rational Coalition") and forge some common goals, as it is action that counts.



Rupert

Ref Martin Foreman's comment. The NSS, BHA and Brights all have members who are hostile to strong, positive atheism who try to prevent the expression of anti-theist and anti-religious views. IMO this reduces their effectiveness in promoting humanism and secularism in its current meanings (of promoting the secular state as well as the strictly constitutional issues).

This is why there has to be a separate independent Atheist Organisation that includes humanists and secularists who are *also* strong, positive atheists, willing and able to criticise and oppose the malign effects of religion. This organisation is currently planning its launch.

London Atheist Meetup Group